I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

I already knew this stuff about who's in it (wish I didn't, but there's just no avoiding it, on the websites).

But just to warn you--yes, a couple of spoilers in this trailer--nothing "new," really, if you've been on Who fan sites, you probably already know.

A commentator on cable "news" network Fox, has stated that he "thinks" (always a subjective word with neo-conservative republicans), that President Barack Obama is a "racist."

Erm--come again?

Republicans must eat with their bottoms, 'cos every time they open their mouths, poo comes out.

Anyway, this so-called "news commentator" said, on-air, in front of millions, that President Obama has a "deep hatred" of white people. "He (Obama) has a problem. The guy, I believe, is a racist."

Riiight, like a white male proletarian like you, would know a racist when you see one?

Are the republican thuggies so overwroght by losing all their elections in 2008/2009, that they have completely and utterly gone round the twist?

Methinks so, maybe, yeah.

Yes, besides deliberately dumbing themselves down and feeding into their own homemade paranoia, like a snake eating its own tail--now, America's right-wingers have totally lost it, and are now utterly and completely BONKERS.

Jeez, why don't they just give up the pretence and hang out their swastikas and start burning their crosses, while goose-stepping down main street with their AK-47's?

I just got this e-mail:

We want your blog! Our production company, Sunset Productions is producing a new reality programme tentatively to be named BLOG WORLDERS. The programme will be about the lives of bloggers as seen through their blogs. We want to feature your blog and we'll even PAY you for participating!

We will need you to sign a waiver and send us your name, address and telephone number. We will also need you to provide your bank account number, through our secure website, in order for us to send your payment to you. Click here to find out more.

Riiight. No, I don't think so.

Reality programme about bloggers? Who would even watch that? And, more importantly, why would anyone turn my blog into a TV show, unless you are running a clinic for people suffering from insomnia and need some special programming.

Oh, I'm sure some poor, naive sucker will buy into this scam, unfortunately.

I'm not about to click some dodgy links, thank you very much.

There was more in the e-mail, what I posted above was just the highlights...the thing about the bank account was stuck on the bottom of the e-mail--but in the middle was this long thing about how the bloggers will be portrayed by "real" actors (as opposed to "fake" actors????) and how your identity will be kept confidential if desired, and how you'll be driven or flown to their studios in the UK, yadda-yadda-yadda.

What a bunch of malarkey!

Tardisgurl just e-mailed me, and swore this was a new meme. Well...we'll see. I'm cooling off in front of the computer, enjoying the breeze coming through the balcony window--no shade out there, right now, being as it's high noon, more or less.

1. How long have you been a fan of Doctor Who?

26 years this year.

2. What country do you reside in?

America.

3. Do you have a favourite Doctor?

I think they're all magnificent, each in their own individual ways.

4. Old series or new series?

Both! The old series was enchanting. The new series is brilliant.

5. What's your favourite Doctor Who costume?

Oh, they each were good for each individual Doctor...and I'm sure Matt Smith's will turn out to be perfect for whatever personality he's going to impress on the character. But, that said, I think I'll always have a special fondness for Tom Baker's costume...to this day, I think it was just--perfect.

6. What do you think about Russell T. Davies?

Well, I think Russell T. probably could care less what someone like me thinks about him.

That said, I believe he's a lovely, talented, very deep-souled, multi-dimentional writer. I don't always agree with his choices--sometimes I hate his choices truth to tell. Usually though, I love them. But, as I sometimes have said, the day I agree with everything a person or organization says, is the day I have myself sectioned.

Sure, I've been seriously angry with him once or twice--but, I've adored him as well, for what he's achieved. He brought back a show which has meant so much to me, in the last 26 years...and, sometimes, his work and his vision has made me think a little outside the box, as they say, and how could I ever truly criticize that, for pity's sake?

7. What do you think of David Tennant?

What is there to say, other than I think he's a briliant and amazing actor. I belive that when he ages a bit more, he may well end up as one of the greatest actors of our time.

8. Have you ever met anyone from Doctor Who?

Yes, at a convention...well, is saying hello in a long queue "meeting" someone?

9. Have you ever handled a genuine Doctor Who prop?

Damn straight. I sat in Bessie, and touched a real Tardis console (from the Tom Baker era).

10. Do you write fan fiction or do art based on Doctor Who?

Yeah, once in a while I'll write a story, and I have my own fan fic blog on Wordpress, for what it's worth.

11. Do you have a Doctor Who blog or Website?

Other than the fan fic thing, no. I don't really count Roasting David, because while I sometimes reference Dr Who, it's really a spoof blog of the actor.

12. Have you ever been to a Doctor Who convention?

Just in the 80's, in Albany and Manhattan NY, and Boston, Massachusetts. It was mad and brilliant and very exciting.

13. Ever belonged to a fan club?

Yes, I was in the local upstate New York fan club, I was actually secretary for two years. At its peak in the mid to late 80's we had about 300 to 400 members. It broke up in 1989/90.

14. Owned Dr Who merchandise?

In the 80's I had a Dr Who jacket, tee shirt, 45 record of the theme, a tin Tardis bank with Peter Davidson on it and some other stuff. It either deteriorated to the point where it had to be tossed, or was lost in a move.

Now, as much as I wish I had the tee shirts and banks and mugs and a sonic and all that, alas, I have about a dozen Dr Who books, four of the old series DVD's, new series DVD's, 2 music CD's and an old framed Target books poster with Tom Baker's Doctor on it.

15. If you could be friends with anyone from Doctor who (actors, producers, crew, FX, wardrobe), who would it be?

That's a silly question. No one involved with Dr Who would be mates with me, get real! They're 3000 miles away, and even if they weren't, they just wouldn't be mates with someone like me. We don't live in the same world.

That said, from my POV, I'd gladly be mates with any one of them, I think, from what I've seen on Confidential and the like, that they seem like a terrific bunch of human beings.

In the scheme of life in general...does it really matter what I think, or write, say or do? Will it change anything? Will it make any difference in the universe, in life?

Meh. No.

It's not even 10.00am and already it's getting bakingly hot...thank goodness there's a slight cool breeze wafting through the balcony window, and one will hope it stays through the afternoon, but it doesn't look promising.

Supposed to have thunderstorms later. Maybe that will cool things off. Decided to wear a dress today to the office, as trousers would be too hot, I think...maybe my skirt or a dress tomorrow (tho' riding a bike in a dress or skirt can be a bit of a challenge in the modesty department, I'm finding.)

This fat old maid don't do no mini-skirts, I don't wanna' look like no shameless hussy. Yeah, think I've been hanging out and talking to the local rednecks too much, lately.

Actually, I can easily slip into southern, midwest or western speech, if need be. I had a room mate from Alabama once, when I was 19. But the end of the summer, I was rining my mum up and calling her "mama." "Ya'll better get them there grits and black eyed peas cookin' mama, cos' I'm a comin' home."

"Dooo watt?" (Translation: What do you mean/what did you say?)

Yeah, for someone that grew up closer to western New England than the deep south or western states, I can manage OK.

I've got the Vermont grunt down pretty good, too: "Eh-yuh." (Translation: Yes).

Last night after work, I stopped by the little shop across the street from the office building (our city's ohe and only office tower), and while in there, overheard some tourist whinging that he was staying in Lake L___ and couldn't get any mobile service there.

I used to live there, that's where I had my caravan, and it's true. The town is on a state highway, or A road. Once you head west on that road, from Lake George, you cross under the I-87 motorway overpass--and when you go past the overpass...say goodbye to your mobile signal.

Also, sometimes the local phone company (a small independent phone company) would be down, as well. So, you had to drive a few miles to find a pay phone, if you were in difficulties. That's life in rural America. People take so much for granted, living in urban and suburban areas, that when they get out to the boondocks, they feel totally at sea, and can't cope with simple problems. (Well, I didn't pay much mind to it, other than cursing the inconvenience, you just take it and move on--but some of the summer people really take it as a personal affront!)

Even the volunteer ambulance squad in the town, would have trouble radioing the hospital here in the city (I know that from personal experience when mum had difficulties one time and had to be transported to hospital by ambulance.)

Part of the reason was the mountains of course, and the fact that the A road was in a sort of valley...but also, the FAA (federal aviation admin) blocked the town/county from putting up a better transmitter, because the airline transmitters--the one's used by commercial jets on the northeastern air corridor) are stuck on top of Prospect Mountain in Lake George, and the FAA is fussed about possible interference.

Yet, ironically, radio signals weren't blocked, and in fact, were fantastic, where I lived. I could not only tune into local stations, I could get stations in Vermont, a 185 miles away in New York City, 200 miles away in Pennsylvania and 160 miles away in Montreal, Canada---even the Midwestern states, at times! I could tune into a station in Chicago, Illinois, and, if I moved the dial all the way to the far right on the static, I could hear the actual transmissions of commercail jet pilots, radioing to the Boston or Albany or Newark towers.

Yet, couldn't get a phone signal to save my life, and the landline service was crap (tho' the company was nice to deal with). Go figure. When dad passed on, and a year later, when mum was dying, I had a county sherrif knock at my door both times in the middle of the night, 'cos on the one occasion with my dad, I was deathly ill and took the phone off the hook, and then with my mum, the main phone line was down, and no one could reach me by my mobile.

Tourists can be a laugh riot, though. Of course my personal favourite touron story is the time I went on a TWO HOUR horseback trail ride up to the top of Birch Mountain in Lake L___, which is about a 25 min. drive from this city. Well, one of the tourists from New Jersey, sitting on his horse, looks out at the mountain top view--seeing the Adriondack mountains sprawling before him into the distance, and says, "Are we still in New York state???" God, to this day that makes me do the point and laugh thing.

Part 1.

You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).

---Bottle collecting was my first hobby. I was around 14 years old when I found my first antique bottle in a ravene near our family home. Mum brought home a book from her library about antique bottle collecting--found my bottle in there (Raleigh's liniment from the 1900's, value was $7.50)..and gosh, I was hooked. Every spring and autumn I'd go out digging for bottles (summer was too bug-filled and hot for comfortable digging). Was a serious collector until my late 20's, and even acted as a volunteer tour guide at the National Bottle Museum. Oldest bottle I found was from the late 1800's. Most valuable was $50.00 tear-dropped shaped soda water bottle (had to lie on its side to keep the cork wet so the gas wouldn't escape), and the most rare (but surprisingly not that valuable) was an early screw-lid mustard jar).

---Eels totally grossed me out when I was a kid. I wouldn't go fishing in the Hudson River when I was growing up, because I didn't want to catch an eel. My dad used to tell me how they used to swallow his hook and he had to haul the ugly things up, and cut the line...made me shudder just thinking about it.

---Tow truck...the first time I ever rode in a truck, was my uncle's ancint 1940s tow truck, back in the mid-60's, when I was about six years old. My dad's brother owned a Sinclair petrol station, then Sinclair went out of business, and my uncle went with Esso (Exxon today). I remember the truck was orange, the stuffing was coming out of the seats, and it was very, very LOUD. I was kind of scared of it, I think. (I was a very, very timid child.)

---Holiday, my first ever--and only-- overnight holiday with my family (with both my mum and dad--sis was married by then) was at Mountain Meadows Lodge in Killington, Vermont. Dad drove us over across the border to Killington for the weekend. We didn't do a whole lot...rode the ski gondola to the top of a mountain and sampled some local Vermont cheddar at a dairy farm--to this day, I remember that, cos' that was THE best cheese I'd ever had, until I tried some stinging nettle cheese at a market in Friesland. Later, in Killington, on my own, I went horseback riding up the ski slopes, hiked a bit on the Appalachin Trail, too. I think Saturday night went out to some restaruant for pizza. Mostly dad lay around sleeping, and mum read a book. That was about par for my family, I'm afraid. I think my parents were actually a bit bored, but I recall enjoying myself--mostly.

Part II.

Write down 10 things about the space you blog in.

1. I use an old computer desk that I got at a jumble sale one fall for $5, it's rather small in size, and at present is a bit cluttered with monitor, speakers, tower, lamp, pen pot, photograph, a colbalt blue glass half-full of cold sweet tea/lemonade, and my medications.

2. My present desk chair came from a yard sale put on by a resort hotel in Lake George, it was a room or lobby chair that got a stain on it. It cost $1, I think. I got that this past spring.

1 my computer tower was a gift from a friend. the flat screen monitor came from Time-Warner, after they gave me a bad ethernet cable which toasted my monitor.

3. My desk also acts as a spare book shelf (I actually could use another bookcase, but haven't seen any at garage sales this summer) books stored in my desk shelves are writing books/dictionary/grammar/thesaurus, etc., various books on/about Shakespeare, a book on R.W. Emerson, two books on/by Thoreau, a book about Descartes, a book on North American wildlife, and an essay about two New England men and their shared love of fly fishing. On the other desk shelf
is Russell T. Davies' book, A couple of misc. books about contemporary life in the UK, two books about people reminising about horses, 2nd edition of Buffalo Bill's biography (written by his sister), biography about Harriet Jacobs (a former slave), and biography about Thomas Jefferson.

4. Over my desk is a large oil painting of a blue bird on a blossoming branch, in a cheap carved teakwood frame, sighed with what looks like "Sampkin" or something.

5. My desk lamp came from Woolies in the late 70's, and is a plastic Clydesdale mare and foal.

6. My pen pot is a white china mug with a fox-hunting scene on it, made by Hammersley of England, or something. Got it at a garage (boot) sale, up in the mountains, years ago.

7. There's a framed photo against the wall behind my monitor, of me sitting in Dr Who's car, bessie, with a spraypainted Tardis in the background, that was the exit for the traveling Dr Who USA exhibit trailer. The pic is from the late 80's, and I'm wearing a knit tie in the same colours as Tom Baker's scarf, and a black satin jacket, that had the 1980's Dr Who logo in silver, screenprinted on the back.

8. The slide out drawer of my desk (where the keyboard goes) is unusable...because it's too low for me, and also it has this wrist rest bar, that's solid wood--and intensely uncomfortable.

9. My desk is in my front room, facing the wall. I'd like it to be elsewhere, but am limited by where I can plug in the cable box--my apartment has few electrical outlets.

10. The cats like to hang out with me while I mess about on the computer...they like to keep an eye on me, ha-ha.

Jeez, it's hot. It's been cool and rainy all summer, so I'm not used to this. It's not as hot as it could be, but..hot enough. For me, anyway. It was 80 F, at 9.00pm this evening. At least we're up north. Down in New York City, some 180 miles to our south, I read where it got to close to 90 F. Well, they can keep it down there, as far as I'm concerned.

I really should go for a swim this week, while it's hot, but being stressed out from the job--do you KNOW how rotten it is, to have to sit there on the phone, hearing some 80 year old woman weeping, 'cos the loan company can't get its crap together and find all her paperwork? We're not allowed to commiserate with people, or match their tone. We have to just let them cry or shout..or scream at the top of their lungs, abuse us, threaten us even...and just do what we need to do with them, and go on to the next call.

And the govt. threw millions at the bunch of incompetant lenders...while they screw around dickering over the health and lives of millions of Americans for money?

Republicans totally suck as human beings. Republican = FAIL. I hope that there really isn't a Hell, cos' if I go there when I die, it'll be full to the brim with stinking republicans.

I got out of work tonight...and hovering on the still humid night air, from somewhere nearby, were the strains of "The Army Goes Rolling Along" The turn of the early 20th Century US Artillery march--and offical song of the US Army....on the bagpipes. Some pipe band was skirlling away, "Over hill, over dale, we have hit the dusty trail, and the cassions go rolling along...."

That was a bit weird--9pm on a dead quiet, hot, humid summer night--a Tuesday night, at that....in my little northern city of 15,000 souls. We do have a pipe band here, the Adirondack Pipes and Drums. I've been to a couple of their free recitals, and they play in parades, funerals for dignitaries, civic events, etc.

Oh, here's a bit of trivia that my dad once told me, many, many years ago. The US Army didn't adopt an offical song until the 1950's. How "The Army Goes Rolling Along" became the official song, is a bit...odd. It's because the orginal "offical" song, called, (I think) The Army's There, or something like that, was discarded in the fifties....because everyone thought the tune sounded too much (I kid you not) like a song called, "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts." (Which is, I believe, Dolly Parton's official song)

No, really. So, we can't have a mob of butch soldiers, parading to "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts"--tho' that would make things a lot more interesting, for my money. God, that sounds almost like a Monty Python sketch, doesn't it?

So anyway, we're stuck with the the much more butch and militry-like tune about cannons being drawn down a dusty road, instead of Dolly Parton's knockers.

Aw, now, as some of you know, moi is not thrilled with spoilers. I like surpise endings--well, surpries of the nice sort...had way, way too many of the bad sort, so when the rare time happens when I get a "good" surprise...oh, it's such a delight, you lot have no idea.

So, this was just e-mailed to me, and again, gonna' share it...yes, it's a bit of a spoiler...but gosh, what a spoiler! It's worth it. Now I'm just panting to see this, cos' it looks like it's going to be amazing! (Yeah right...since when isn't Dr Who amazing?)

If you could see me right now--well, maybe not, It's boiling hot and I'm typing in the nude. (Just kidding!)

Anyway, if you could see me right now, you'd see this big ol' slap-happy grin on my face, cos' I just LOVED the ending of the trailer--it's both hilarious and scary. What a combination. Oh, RTD, I could hug you, right now, you're just that brill.